24 Hours

Twenty four hours out from our departure to Maine...looks like our first week will be stormy. The weather forecast shows rain four out of the first seven days we're there. To make matters worse, looks like we will arrive in the rain...always a hassle. As a bonus, it appears that I will be loading up the car top carrier in the rain tonight. In addition, next Tuesday, the day that my inlaws will be flying up to Maine, Hurricane Irma might be arriving in Richmond, making their second attempt at flying to Maine in 2017 problematic. But, the good news is, Sean Hannity is still on top of Hillary's email scandal.

Despite these dark clouds, or perhaps because of them, there is a scent of adventure in the air today. The last day before leaving for a three week vacation is always crazy. There's the packing, made infinitely more difficult because it's Maine, so you have to pack for a wide range of weather outcomes. That means long pants and shorts. Tee shirts and sweaters. Swimming trunks and jackets. Then there's the added challenge of packing for a golden retriever. Half of the car is taken up with her crap. But through it all, there is an undercurrent of excitement. A road trip is that quintessential American experience. We are a vast country ribboned throughout with highways and back roads. This is a country built for travel, and we have the crumbling infrastructure to prove it. Hitting the road for a destination 845 miles and a half century away, is the sort of thing that has always gotten my blood pumping. 

Even if it rains every day in September, Pam and I will remember these next three weeks. This cannot be said of any random three weeks in Short Pump. 

So, we will take the weather as it comes, with resignation and submission. We will enjoy whatever comes our way. These next three weeks belong to us in full. We don't have to share it with Dunnevant Financial, or Hope Thrift, or River's Edge. 

We just have to get there. The trip is the hard part, the dangerous part. But for me, it's also the exciting part.